China’s GDP Grows 6.7 Percent In First Three Quarters

2018-10-19 1:23 pm

China’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 6.7 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2018 to about 65.09 trillion yuan (about 9.38 trillion US dollars), data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Friday.

In the third quarter, China’s GDP rose 6.5 percent year-on-year, lower than the 6.7-percent growth recorded in the second quarter, according to NBS data.

Retail sales increased by 9.3 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, down from 9.4 percent in the first two quarters combined, the data showed.

Fixed-asset investment growth was 5.4 percent in the first three quarters of this year, 0.6 percentage point lower than the first two quarters as a whole but 0.1 percentage point higher than in the first eight months.

Despite the easing in growth, surveyed urban unemployment rate nationwide was 4.9 percent in September, down from 5 percent a year before.

Meanwhile, the industrial output growth was 6.4 percent year-on-year in the January-September period, 0.3 percentage point lower than the first half of this year, the data showed.

Industrial output is used to measure the activity of certain large enterprises with an annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan.

In the first three quarters, manufacturing output expanded 6.7 percent year-on-year, mining output rose 1.8 percent, while the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas, and water posted the fastest growth of 10.3 percent among the three major sectors.

Mao Shengyong, the spokesman of the bureau, said the data showed that the country’s economic growth remained on track but faces heavier downward pressure.